Giving Back: The Conservation Alliance Legacy Fund

12.30.2008

At the beginning of the 2008 racing season, all the members of Team GoLite agreed to give back to the environment in which we race and donate 10% of our 2008 sponsorship money to a non-profit association dedicated to conserving and protecting our lands. We believe there's more to racing than just winning, and we hope to prove as much by lessening our travel impact, off-setting the CO2 emissions that we could not reduce, educating at clinics and races, and then giving back to supportive organizations.

Today, we made a donation in the name of GoLite/Team GoLite to the Conservation Alliance Legacy Fund. The Conservation Alliance is the outdoor industry's collective commitment to protecting our wild lands, and its Legacy Fund Campaign will help to ensure that it remains a force in conservation and be a permanent figure in the future. The Legacy Fund will provide a stable source of operational funding, and our contribution will help them reach their goals to create a solid foundation for the organization's future.

Please check out more about the Conservation Alliance: www.conservationalliance.com. They are working to support and provide funding for so many worthy causes, many of them probably in your own backyard. For more information about the Legacy Fund, please visit www.conservationalliance.com/about/legacy_fund.

Have a great New Year!

Happy Holidays

Hope everyone had a great holiday season! We have been out and about, never a dull moment around here! Tiff and I jetted off to Italy in early December to visit one of Tiffanie's best friends near Venice. It was a whirlwind tour from Venice, to Aviano, to watching Shelley's husband Greg taxi and takeoff (he is an F-16 pilot in the Air Force), to Cortina, and back. After nearly a week of missing our train connections, we were home, just in time for me to head out to Cleveland to visit my boys Davis and Chad, and to hit-up Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park. Pretty cool concept, lots of fun, can't wait for Boulder Indoor Cycling to open now! Davis's Christmas party was off the hook, and I am pretty sure I had as much fun as a Boulderite could possibly have in the Cleve! Since then, it was down to Pueblo, CO to visit the parents for the holidays, then a quick jaunt down to Crested Butte to take advantage of the 50" of snow they received last week! Luckily, Tiff and I were able to catch up with JB, Wick, and Jari from Team Salomon/Crested Butte, and had fun skiing with Wick and JB. After trying out Wick's Rando race kit, I think I am hooked, too bad I can't even afford a pair of race bindings! Hopefully I will have out the "Heavy Metal" this year and can do some COSMIC (Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup) races, albeit much slower than Wick, JB and the boys on their race gear!

Cheers and Happy Holidays. Still looking for New Years plans.

(Pictures are Brooks and Tiff in Cortina, Italy; Skinning up Crested Butte mountain at dusk on Wick's "crack" Ultralight race gear. )

-Brooks

Ultimate XC 20-Miler in Moab, UT

November 15th, 2008
James Kovacs 1st Place Open, 2nd Overall
Chris Boyd 8th Place Open

From the viewpoint of Chris Boyd:

Moab, UT -- a must visit for any adventure-loving individual or really just anyone with an eye for the astonishing imagination found in nature. This year, Moab was the home to the Ultimate XC, a new offroad trail running event catering to the adventure lovers in us all. The race director Dan Desrisuers is a friend of mine from when we met at his notorious Jay Challenge in 2006. How does one describe Dan accurately, giving him credit for his immense passion for creating unique, enormously challenging and rugged course design? I'm not sure I have the words to do him justice other than by saying "This guy takes pleasure in seeing you hurt, in a good way J". Yeah, I suppose we all self-diagnose by showing up at one of these events as being, how do you say, a little 'off', but the challenge we set out to overcome is unique to each individual. For myself, the Ultimate XC 20-Mile trail race was a motivator, a mechanism for keeping my mind hungry and my body ready for a new challenge. Coming toward the end of a racing season, it is all too easy to hunker down and wait out the cold and snow, but for James and I and about 248 others, we looked to the Ultimate XC Moab as a spring board to help us catapult our physical shape through the winter and into an even greater 2009.

As I eluded, Dan is never one to disappoint, and this race certainly lived up to the promise it had advertised. 20 miles through canyons and high points of the slickrock, monolith-covered back trails of Moab, Dan and race director Danielle Ballange set a course that any trail runner should look forward to running. The start was up what I believe was Pritcher Canyon, which was a rocky, loose, rutted and boulder-filled 4x4 trail that snakes its way south and then west, heading away from the Colorado River and the town of Moab. Coming out of the canyon, you steadily gain altitude as you sneak your way to the top roof of the canyon before dropping down into a rutted out hole in teh rocks, finally hitting a service road. A stunning run up a riverbed, through and under arches and large rocks carved out by thousands of years of flowing torrents left the area with many soft edged rocks and evidence that nature's power had been at work in these parts for many years. Coming out of this river bed after grabbing a checkpoint punch, I looked to my GPS which read 3 miles further than the maps said we would have traveled up to this point. Hmmm, might my watch be broken?

Flashback 2 years to the Jay Challenge on day 3 while competing in the 65-mile mountain bike leg of the race (day 1 was a 27-mile flatwater paddle and day 2 was a 36-mile trail run which if I tried to describe now would cause me to lose focus, but let me just say it was HARD) and coming to find that after riding for 71 miles I was still a mile from the finish line. The story behind the over-delivering on mileage is one I recall Dan telling before the run leg of the Jay Challenge that year (which I believe was supposed to be 31 miles). He said something to the effect of, "last year some of youz guyz (use your best French-Canadian accent here) GPS-d my course and complained I was 5 miles short on the run. This year, you won't be disappointed, believe me". That must have scarred Dan because in all teh races I've done of his, he always 'over-delivers' and that came to be true in the 10-miler (actually 12.5), 20-miler (actually 23.5) and the 50k (actually pretty close to right on but probably a mile extra).

The version of the ending of the race I most prefer ends with me telling James (who by the way WON the Men's open category finishing 1hr 15min ahead of me...wow) that I was right on his heals, just around the corner, close enough the entire race where I could see him but he could not see me. Then about a half-mile from the finish I just sat down. Yup, one the dirt, sat there and waited. Here I am waiting...waiting...waiting. 30 minutes, then 45, then 1hr, then 1hr 10min. I decide now I can get up to finish, allowing him a solid cushion to secure his dominance over a field of uber-fast athletes and also me.

Put this race on the calendar for 2009. The race was an amazing experience and one I look forward to repeating. Rumor is there might be a mountain biking race next year on day 2. Think about it.

Boyd

USARA National Championships

November 7, 2008

Friday morning arose with darkness and fog settled in across the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia. Over 70 teams gathered at the town gazebo, ready for instructions to begin the Adventure Racing National Championships of 2008. This was the first time we as a Team had stepped foot in this area, notorious for difficult navigation, unmarked trails, and unreliable maps. With a grand start, we all boarded the scenic byways train in downtown Blue Ridge, travelling to a destination unknown.

Looking back at the week before the race, we really would like to recognize Charlie Merrill and Alta Physical Therapy for the help they gave Tiffanie. Just days before leaving for Georgia, Tiffanie sustained a grade II ankle sprain. Charlie worked with Tiffanie over the weekend to help her achieve the quickest healing time possible, and his coaching and advice enabled Tiffanie to get to Georgia and get on that train Friday morning.

We received "prologue" points while on the train. Already armed with the majority of the race points from the map pick-up the previous night, we would begin the day with a fresh set of checkpoints to get us from the train to the canoes. The "prologue" consisted of 4 checkpoints by foot; a quick segment to see who could get to the boats first. With this quick beginning in the "prologue", we were in the canoes before we knew it. Sunshine was finally beginning to drench the river, and we headed downstream.

The canoes only had 2 seats, which meant Tiffanie had to brace herself on the floor of the boat. James and Brooks continually leapt from the canoe to carry it across shallow waters and portages. With such a low water level this time of year, the canoe portion had quite a bit of running involved (and plenty of getting wet in the process). After about 17 miles on the river, we finally made it to the shore and our first official checkpoint on map. From there, we carried the canoe another mile to the drop-off, which I can tell you is no easy feat. As we dropped the canoe, the rain began to fall. We ran 10 miles along the river to our bikes, dropped off the night before at the only "transition" of the race. Not allowed to have any extra gear or food at that transition, we simply picked up the bikes and were on our way. The rain continued to fall, and as night descended, we finally made it to the first run section. Donning our favorite Ay-Up Headlamps, we set out with lights ablaze for an adventure on foot. And as usual, we have the best lights out there -- we even discovered that the burn times of the 3-hour batteries can actually sometimes last you through 5 hours -- awesome.

As I mentioned before, the maps of the area aren't always inclusive of all trails, and even some trails on the map no longer exist. We climbed and crawled our way up the steep slopes, trekked along unmarked horse trails, and ran whenever we could find a reasonable surface. Rain kept pouring down as we unearthed ourselves from the dense brush and remounted our bikes. Our Rocky Mountain Bikes continued to handle the tough terrain of rocks, roots, and sludge, and our Maxxis Tires held descending steep slopes slippery with wet leaves and roots. We were drenched to the bone, without a single piece of dry gear to wear. We ran out of water, and as a result had to forage for streams to treat our water. Thank goodness for Nuun tablets, which helped mask the taste of chlorine dioxide and kept us wanting to stay hydrated! Arriving at the next run section, we were colder than we couldn've ever imagined we could be.

The night continued, and with 13 hours of darkness, we plowed through the cold and wet. When the morning rose, we welcomed it with open arms. The rains finally began to lift, and so did our body temperatures. We finished the race in good spirits and good health, crossing the finish line after being on the course for almost 28 hours.

Although we finished mid-pack in 37th place (out of 70+ teams), we learned a lot in this race, and continued our growth as a Team. We had hoped for a better finish, but we're proud of our showing at Nationals, and are even more proud to represent the companies who support us. It was amazing to pull our Tifosi sunglasses out of our packs after a night of wet and dirt, to see them intact and perfectly ready for the sunshine of the morning dawn. Our Smartwool socks kept our feet protected throughout the whole race, and not one of us suffered a blister, even though we trudged through wet and sludge for hours on end. As far as we've seen, we're the only Team to get to Nationals completely carbon neutral, and we only hope that more will follow suit next year (and we'll be recommending other teams to have Native Energy do that for them!). And big thanks to GoLite, for helping us to get to Georgia, providing us with the best packs and clothing for racing, and for believing in us all season long. We've really enjoyed all the adventures we've had this season, and look forward to many more to come!

Nationals

Gearing up for USARA National National Championships in Blue Ridge, GA this week, the team will be flying out on Tuesday for the race which starts Friday at 7 am. This is going to be a 30 hour race, and the team is looking forward to racing hard and having a great time in a new location for us. Unfortunately, team member Tiffanie Beal, in her final preparations for the race rolled her ankle exactly (within 10 minutes) 1 week before the start of the race. We are working hard to rehab that ankle and have some of the best doctors, physical therapists (Forrest Walker and Charlie Merrill at Alta Physical Therapy), chiropractors (Dr. Larry Frieder of Boulder sport and spine), and Massage Therapists (Jeff Staron - the man) that Boulder has to offer.

Wish Tiff luck on a speedy recovery, and hope for our sake that she is fit and able to race come Friday morning. 6 days is a VERY short recovery from an ankle sprain, but she is working hard, and she is tough as nails, so if anyone can pull through it, it is Tiff. Shonny Vanlandingham just took 3rd at the Xterra World Championships with a similar injury, so we have high hopes for Tiff this week.

Congrats to our good friend Sara Tarkington who just placed 9th (Pro Women) at the Xterra World championships.

Also, good luck to our friends and fellow racers who are set to start tomorrow afternoon at the AR World Championships / EcoMotion Brazil race. Shane, Travis, and everyone else, stay safe in the jungle and we wait for the stories when you return.

Anyway, for more information on the USARA National championships, check out www.usaranationals.com

Cheers!

King of the Rockies!

This Labor Day weekend brought the Winter Park Resort Tipperary Creek XC race, which the locals refer to as the "King of the Rockies". Brooks, Tiff, and longtime friend Doug headed up to the race to give it a whirl. This was the first time at this race for Brooks and Tiff, and the 3rd go-round for Doug who spends most of his time kicking butt on the Mountain States Cup circuit.

The race started at 10:02 am for us boys with a 3-4 mile road section. It was a good, controlled pace, and Doug and I were able to stay in the top 4 spots in the paceline. Several hundred meters before the singletrack climb started up Tipperary creek, I pushed to the front, and was able to set the pace up the long climb. With my head down but going at a reasonable pace, as we approached the top of the climb I imagined all the angry riders I had held up on the singletrack, just trying to maintain myself for later in the race. To my surprise, as I looked back, only Doug was behind me and he let me know I had "shelled" the rest of the field on the climb. Needless to say, Doug and I battled for almost the entire 26 miles, exchanging places during his amazing uphill endo, and my air-headed unclip as I hit a pedal on a rock. In the end, Doug took second in the Men's Expert 25-29 division behind a former professional road rider, and I took 3rd around 2 minutes behind Doug (he really put it to me on the last climb!).

As for Tiffanie, well, she pretty much killed it! Tiff easily won the Womens Expert 19-29 divison by over 2.5 minutes. I think I smell an upgrade to the Pro division in her future!

Congrats to Doug, you have deserved to put it to me all season, and I just kept putting together good races. Good job mate!

Congrats to Tiffanie on her win! It has been amazing to see someone go from bike-commuting only, to being a top-level Mountain biker in only 3 years.

On a future note, the team is now committed to racing in the USARA (United States Adventure Racing Association) 24 hour National Championships in Blue Ridge, GA November 7th-8th. We are looking for a good race to do between now and then (besides local cyclocross races), and we will keep you updated on where we go!

Thanks for your support of our team, and thanks to our sponsors who make all of this possible.

Cheers!

My how time flies!!!!!!

Sorry for the long delay since I last posted! Life has been very hectic around here with racing season in full swing, and lots of changes in the personal lives as well!!!

Lots to report on, so I will get going!

First, the team had a great race waaay back at the end of June at the Adventure Xstream 24 hour in Breckenridge, CO. Starting at midnight, we ran with our paddling gear to the marina, and braced for a lap around Lake Dillon in the painfully slow duckys. After some good navigation by Boyd and James getting around some small inlet islands, the team was tied with Eolus and Boulder Performance Network for the lead arriving at CP 3, the halfway point of the kayak. After battling a fierce side/headwind, some seasickness, and a back spasm for the remainder of the kayak, the team lost some time on the last leg, but was feeling strong again after the run back to the nordic center, and TA1. We hit the Orienteering course hard, and managed to maintain our deficit to the top teams, and went out on the trek ready make up time and conserve energy for the bike. Heading out at around 7 am after 4.5 hours in the boats, and 2.5 hours on the O-course, it was a beautiful morning as we crested the Continental Divide on Miners Creek, and headed down toward Copper Mountain. As we hit the intersection with Wheeler Trail about 1200 vertical feet below and West of the divide, we took a hard left, and headed back up to the top of Peak 9 above Breckenridge resort and our 2nd divide crossing. Passing another team on the Way, we crossed the Divide again heading East, and started the long descent down Breckenridge Ski Area. Thanks to Boyd's "local knowledge" we had some good Navigation down the mountain, and hit TA3 in Breckenridge just as the skies opened and started pouring rain! With Boyd and Brooks on inline skates, and James and Tiffanie on kick bikes, the team flew from Breckenridge to Frisco despite the rain, and the practice paid off with our team having the fastest inline skate of the whole race!

Once on the mountain bikes it was a long climb up Tiger Road, but the climbing was only getting started. After a looonnnggg climb to CP15 on the Colorado Trail just below Georgia Pass, it became all worth it with an amazing CT singletrack descent made even better by ultra-tacky trails following the rain. Unfortunately, the long climb had taken its toll on the team, and although our team and strategy was strong, we missed a time cutoff by only 5 minutes, and was unable to proceed to CP19. The 2 hour penalty dropped the team two spots in the final rankings, but we are still happy with 5th place. The team dynamic was amazing, and we nearly all agreed that this was the most fun we had ever had in a race.

As usual, special thanks goes out to our sponsors. Our GoLite Virga jackets and Smartwool socks performed flawlessly in the high-alpine downpour, our Maxxis tires made a tricky descent sooo much fun, and the testing at BPL and Alta PT paid off in our training. As usual, our AY UP lights were the envy of the Orienteering course, and our Tifosi optics not only look great, but kept the muck out of our eyes in the rain and mud.

Cheers!

Tiffanie Beal takes 3rd at USA Marathon Mountain Biking National Championships

4th of July in Colorado means Fun, Fireworks, and the Firecracker 50! A 50 mile mountain bike race in Breckenridge, CO, the Firecracker is a brutal race, with (2) 25 mile laps and a top-out elevation well above 11000 ft! This year, the Firecracker was the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Biking National Championship.

After just over 5 and a half hours in the saddle, (and a ridiculous amount of dust inhaled) Tiffanie Beal came home 3rd in the 19-29 Womens Open Field. A great result, and having finished only 10 minutes behind the eventual winner, Tiff is sure to return next year with a win on her mind!

On a sadder note; Brooks, Tiff, James, and Mike all wish the best to team member Chris Boyd, whose mother fell ill on Independence day. We're all thinking of you and your entire family Boyd, and wish for the best.

Fat Tire Classic Clinic - XC Super Loop

This past weekend Team members James Kovacs, Tiffanie Beal, and Brooks Beal headed up to Winter Park, CO for a weekend of mountain biking fun. This weekend was the fat tire classic, a mountain bike classic to benefit the American Red Cross, and the National Sports Center for the Disabled. After most of the riders had trickled in from their ride, we were there to host an adventure racing clinic for all interested. The clinic was fairly informal, and we were able to distribute some 20% off coupons to GoLite, as well as raffling off some GoLite Rush packs to some lucky soon-to-be adventure racers! We had all of our gear on display, and there was a lot of interest in everything, especially our super light Ay Up light systems and GoLite Packs.
On Sunday, it was back to race mode for the team, with the three of us competing in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series XC Super Loop. It was a great race, with lots of technical climbing and descending, and the team had a great performance. Tiffanie won the 19-29 womens expert division and was the 2nd place expert woman overall. In the Mens 19-25 Expert division, the team represented well with Brooks taking 4th place, and with James taking 13th after some mechanical difficulties.

Fun weekend! Brooks and Tiffanie will be competing in the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race in Breckenridge, CO on the 4th of July. The firecracker is the USA Cycling Marathon National Championship this year, so there is sure to be LOTS of competition there. The training load doesn't stop there, as they will probably get out on Saturday after the race to scout-out some of the singletrack typically used in the Adventure Xstream Summit race, only 3 weeks away. Hopefully, they can meet-up with some friends currently live overseas and help guide a group of folks from New Zealand for the first couple of days of their Colorado / Utah Mountain biking tour. Lots going on!

Cheers - talk to you all soon.

Primal Quest!

Primal Quest Montana 2008 started today, with all of the teams having to climb to the top of Big Sky resort. it was a fast paced start by many of the top teams, and it will be interesting to see how everyone's strategies play out going into the first dark zone. While we were not able to be racing at PQ this year, we have many friends who are racing, and we wish them the best of luck. Kyle and Keith of Team Basecamp, Travis Macy of Team Merrill, and everyone else we know, train with, and race against - have a great race, go fast, and be safe!

www.ecoprimalquest.com

MSC Crested Butte - Wildflower Rush

Brooks and Tiff headed down to Crested Butte June 20-22 for the Mountain States Cup Wildflower Rush. Both raced in the Cross Country race in the 19-29 Expert class, and both had a good day! The weather was good, the course was fun (especially the section "in the tape" of the downhill course!) and the competition was fast! Tiff fought through dehydration after dropping her water bottle/nutrition on her first lap, and still managed to pull out a super-strong 4th place finish, while Brooks had a good effort to take 5th place in a competitive field.

A special thanks goes to Alison Gannett for letting us stay at her beautiful straw-bale house in Crested Butte, and play with her awesome cat. We had a great time and were comfy just checking out the awesome view from the couch! We can't wait to go back once the rest of the trails are clear of the snow!

Happy Birthday!

As a happy birthday present, Tiff went in to get some lab testing last week with physiological guru Jason Smith of Boulder Performance Lab. Just to make his life difficult (we like to do that), Tiff had him work up some custom protocols, and as usual, Jason hit it just right. Since our races tend to be won less on VO2 Max and more on proper nutrition and aerobic fitness, Jason works perfectly with our needs to determine what's important, and what we don't need to worry about. He is great about discussing his test ideas with you before the test, and even better about discussing your results after the test and working with you on any questions you may have. Bottom line - Tiff is getting fit, so watch out ladies, (and guys for that matter!), she is coming for you!

And everyone should really get in to see Jason at Boulder Performance Lab at Alta Physical Therapy. It is the best lab testing around, and available at a great price. It is amazing what we have been able to do with the data Jason has given us, and our racing has really benefited from what we have learned. Check him out, and go get your suffer on! It really does pay off!

Teva Mountain Games

Team GoLite Adventure Racing—Post Race Report
Teva Mountain Games, Vail, CO — June 7-8, 2008
SoBe Cross-Country Mountain Bike Race
- Tiffanie Beal, 3rd Place Overall, Women’s Expert
- Brooks Beal, 17th Place Overall, Men’s Expert
Ultimate Mountain Challenge
- James Kovacs, 11th Place Overall, Individual

Professionals and Amateurs from all across the world converged upon Vail, CO last weekend to participate in the highly competitive Teva Mountain Games. Brooks, Tiffanie, and James represented Team GoLite in the games, with Brooks and Tiffanie going for the Cross-Country Mountain Bike Race and James taking on the Ultimate Mountain Challenge.

The mountain bike course proved to be brutal, including lung-busting climbing of 4,000 vertical feet and screaming fast singletrack downhills with large rock and log drops. With the new Rocky Mountain Bikes and grippy Maxxis Tires, Team GoLite proved to be contenders and made impressions on the field. Brooks, racing in a large group of semi-pro and expert men, turned in an impressive 17th place finish out of 47 in the field. In her second mountain bike race ever, Tiffanie finished her race in third place in the women’s expert division, climbing her way on to the podium.

The Ultimate Mountain Challenge began the first day kayaking down the raging Gore Creek and finishing with the intense cross-country mountain bike course. The second day opened with a 10K Trail Run through steep terrain and finished off the weekend with the road bike Hill Climb from the center of Vail to the top of Vail Pass. Through all the elevation gain and challenging courses, James finished the weekend in 11th place, quite the feat given the competition in the Teva Games.

The games were an awesome venue with lots of activity, exposure, world-class athletes, media, and spectators. Check out more information about the games and event pictures at the following link:

http://www.tevamountaingames.com/default.cfm

Team GoLite would like to thank all of our sponsors, GoLite and GoLite Footwear, Smartwool, NUUN, Tifosi Optics, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Native Energy, Maxxis Tires, Ay Up lighting, Boulder Performance Lab, and Alta Physical Therapies. We thank you for your continuing support.

Click here for more photos or use the link under pictures!

24 Hours of Erock

Team GoLite Adventure Racing—Post Race Report
24 Hours of Erock presented by Optic Nerve—May 30-31, 2008
2nd place Coed 4-5, 2nd place overall

Call it a going away present, call it a change of pace. As teammate Colin True’s first and last team hurrah before moving back to the East Coast, the team assembled to race in the 24 Hours of Erock, part of the Elephant Rock weekend in Castle Rock, Colorado. This race was a 24 hour mountain bike relay, so we all got a chance to eat real food and get some sleep between laps, rather than our standard go until you are finished race strategy! Not to mention we got to set up a great support area, with GoLite shelters, 10’x10’ canopies, and sponsor banners abound!

The race started at 6:30pm on Friday with a 200yd sprint pushing your bike, a cyclocross mount, and a lap. The first lap was a fast one, covering the 8.2 mile course in less than 28 minutes. From there, the team got into a groove, and despite a heavy crash and a trip to the EMT’s, the race went according to plan. 24 hours later, the team emerged in 2nd place overall, less than 20 minutes behind the leading team.

The course was fast, with good passing opportunities and some spots with lots of sand. Despite the fact that the majority of the winning team was riding cyclocross bikes to take advantage of the smooth trail, our Rocky Mountain Elements were super quick, and did a great job. When the night came around, our Ay Up lights performed flawlessly, and the team had to answer the questions: “where did you get those lights?!”, “can I borrow your lights?”, and “awesome lights” throughout the entire race. Beyond that, our Tifosi glasses (with our new clear lenses!), GoLite Jerseys, Smartwool socks, NUUN hydration tablets, and Maxxis Monorail tires gave us the competitive edge, and kept us racing for the victory right until the last minutes.

For more information, please check out:

http://www.elephantrockride.com/24_hours.html

As always, Keep tuned to the blog for information!

Team GoLite would like to thank all of our sponsors, GoLite and GoLite Footwear, Smartwool, NUUN, Tifosi Optics, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Native Energy, Maxxis Tires, Ay Up lighting, Boulder Performance Lab, and Alta Physical Therapies. We thank you for your continuing support.

Please see the photots or find the photos frame on the right side.

Team GoLite in the Community

Several members of the team took some time off work this week to provide a bike maintenance clinic and answer questions at the City of Boulder bike/walk/bus commuter of the year award ceremony. Tiff, Boyd, Colin, and Brooks had a great time, and although the rain chased off a lot of people, we were able to help educate people on how to maintain their bicycles.

Not only did we have our bike stands and tools, we had the fleet of Rocky Mountains bicycles, Ay Up lights, Tifosi Sunglasses, and Maxxis tires on display.

This was just a start, and the team is already looking forward to more opportunities to give back to our community. Not to mention we got to reload after the last race with some delicious Glacier ice cream!

Cheers!

Team GoLite Finishes 4th (preliminary) at AXS Buena Vista 24 hour!

What a race! I don't even know where to begin! Maps at 5pm Friday, CP's 1-4 given at start and Cp's 7-10 given at the Kayak-Bike transition. The race start at 11:50pm was a pretty calm one, with everyone getting the coordinates of CP1-4, plotting, and putting a strategy together. We started out at a reasonable pace, keeping in stride with Team Eolus and Team Salomon/Crested Butte. After 7 miles on trail, we headed into the woods to get CP1 at a high point at 9262’. Straight uphill to the CP, and straight downhill to the road at McGee Gulch at 8900’. No rest, and straight back uphill to CP3 on a ridge at 10130’. This where it got interesting! Scrambling hands and feet avoiding 40’ sheer rock faces on the climb up, the skies opened up and began dumping wet, heavy snow. By the time we reached the summit, between the clouds and heavy snowfall the visibility was les than 15 feet! After a quick, blind search for the CP, we found it and headed off for the beginning of the O-course at CP-2. We got a few points on the way to CP4, ran the long distance to CP4, and then back on the o-course to get some more points. We determined that we had to leave for the ropes course by 7:15am to get there in time, and headed out right on time. After the beautiful but grueling 400’ Tyrolean Traverse, into the kayaks for a trip down class II and class III water on the Arkansas River. At 1250 cfs, the river was raging, and Brooks and Tiffanie ended up going for a bone chilling swim when they got caught in a nasty hydraulic. After pulling out the boats and trying to get warm again in a nasty wind, we got our new CP’s, plotted the maps, and headed out on the bikes. A long, steep, sandy ATV road climb really tested the new Rocky Mountain Elements and Maxxis Monorails, and they performed flawlessly! A quick trip through the second O-course and a downhill-singletrack to the finish. It was a great race, and the conditions really tested the toughness of the team. Although we finished in 3rd position, we were plagued by O-course penalties from injuries, and were relegated to 4th place by a team that finished behind us. Lots of adversity, lots of bad weather, and lots of great teamwork: we had a great time, and are now looking to get everyone healthy again for the 24hours of Erock. We will also be doing some community outreach—providing a bike maintenance clinic and Q&A session for the City of Boulder Alternative transportation awards Ice cream social. Keep tuned to the blog for information!

Team GoLite would like to thank all of our sponsors, GoLite and GoLite Footwear, Smartwool, NUUN, Tifosi Optics, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Native Energy, Maxxis Tires, Ay Up lighting, Boulder Performance Lab, and Alta Physical Therapies. We thank you for your continuing support. We have had a strong start to the season, and we are only getting stronger as the year rolls on!

Rocky Mountain Bike Demo

The Team met up with our Rocky Mountain Bikes sponsor this past Saturday at Heil Ranch as they teamed up with Sports Garage to put on a bike demo. Eph, our rep from Rocky Mountain, proved to be as cool in person as he is in emails. For the first time, we tried out our new Element 90 Bikes, which rode like a dream. We're all really excited to have them in time for our race this weekend in Buena Vista. The Element 90s are among their top-of-the-line cross country bikes; check them out:

www.bikes.com

Brooks and Tiffanie continued on Sunday to train and get a little more time on foot in preparation for Buena Vista. After summiting Flagstaff, Green, Bear, and South Boulder peaks in one shot, they ended their day after 4.5 hours of running and major elevation change. Now, a little taper time until the next race begins at midnight on Friday...

Tour of Front Range

First off - Here are some pictures of the Epic rappel in the AXS Moab 12 hour race!

Last Sunday, Mike, Boyd, Brooks, Tiff, James, and Mike's buddy Rife put in a long day in preparation for the AXS Buena Vista race. Starting at the bottom of White Ranch we Mountain biked up Longhorn to the top parking lot, across to the top of Belcher hill, down Mustang, back up to Longhorn, and down to the base. After a quick stop at the cars, we hopped on Hwy 93 and rode to the bottom of chimney gulch. Up chimney gulch to the top of lookout mountain, across the top and down Apex. Unfortunately, Enchhanted Forest was still snowed-in, but we still had fun. Back climbing up grubstake loop, and back to the bottom apex. From there, back to White Ranch, a quick stop at the cars to put on the running shoes, and back up white ranch on foot. It was a great day, and we all had a lot of fun. We were all really excited that we felt pretty good after 7 hours of climbing, and looking forward to the race in 2 weeks. This Wednesday, most of the team will be heading to the Boulder Theater to check out the new Collective mountain bike movie, Thursday evening, some of us will be going for a run/trek across boulder OS PARKS, while Tiffanie will be checking out the Environmental Sustainability of the New Belgium Brewery with GoLite. Saturday, Brooks, Tiffanie, Colin, and possibly Boyd will be checking out the Sports Garage Demo days with Rocky Mountain Bicycles, and it sounds like Mike will be in Nathrop, CO for the MSC Chalk Creek mountain bike races. Busy week for the team!

Cheers, hope you are all doing well!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Happy Earth day everyone! We hope you are doing well, and encourage everyone to do what they can to help the environment today! To that front, please check out the link below, to see what one of our sponsors, Native Energy, is doing to help the environment in a local Colorado town.

A Wray of Hope

Just one reason (among many - check out their site) that we believe that Native Energy is THE best environmental offset company available.

Cheers, and remember- do what you can to make our world a better place today-and everyday!

Brooks takes 7th in Arkansas Point Challenge MTB race

Brooks headed down to Pueblo, CO this past weekend to visit the parents and race in a mountain bike race at Lake Pueblo State Park. It was great fun, and the 28 mile course was fast, loose, and flat. The expert class had a lot of fast racers (including several semi-pro riders) and although he was holding down 4th place for most of the race, a flat tire around the 22nd mile pushed him back to 9th place. Luckily, 2 hours is a really short race for us, and he was able to push hard at the end when other riders were slowing down and made it back to 7th at the finish.

It was a great time. This is a race to check out for next year!

Physio Testing

Friday Apr 18, Brooks and Boyd headed down to our newest sponsor; Boulder Performance Lab to get some physiological testing done. Unlike the standard VO2 max, Lactate profile tests most athletes have done, we were looking for something a little different. Jason Smith at BPL was great to work with, and designed a fully custom test protocol to address our physical needs/concerns. The information we got was amazing, and we are excited with what we can do going forward with the results of the tests! Thanks so much to Jason Smith, what you do is amazing. If you want/need any physiological testing done, go see Jason at BPL! (click link under sponsors for website and contact info!)

Team GoLite Places 7th in Moab Adventure Xstream 12 Hour!

Sorry it's been so long since the last update, but we have been busy! We once again headed out to the high Utah desert for the first race of the season, the AXS Moab 12 hour on April 5th. The race consisted of a ~7 mile paddle on the Colorado River, 50miles of mountain biking, ~8 miles of running, and a breathtaking 275' rappel. The team for this race consisted of Tiffanie Beal, Chris Boyd, Brooks Beal, and new team superstar James Kovacs. Despite the deep sand, and some other small problems (how often has your seat fallen off your bike?), we had a great race and a lot of fun. Although we were in 5th place for most of the race, we are still pleased to have placed 7th against some of the top teams in the US.

We would especially like to thank all of our sponsors: GoLite and GoLite Footwear, Smartwool, Native Energy, NUUN, Maxxis tires, Tifosi Optics, and Ay Up Lighting systems. It was a good start to the season, and we are working hard for the next races coming up!

Tifosi!

The Team would like to thank Tifosi Optics for supplying us with sunglasses for the 2008 season! After our long Moab weekend, we unanimously decided these were the best sunglasses we have tried (and believe me, we all have a LOT of sunglasses). If you are in the market for sunglasses, you have got to check out Tifosi.

Moab Training Camp

Check out all the Pictures HERE

Well, this is about as much fun as you can have and still call it training. With just 2 weeks until our first race, the team headed out to Moab for the weekend to work on mountain biking and team dynamics. As expected, everything went great! Tiff and Brooks headed out Thursday evening to secure what was the last campsite at sand flats (thanks Jeep Safari!) and the rest of the boys headed out first thing Friday morning. With some time to kill, Tiff and Brooks rode Amasa Back in the morning, then met up with the boys around 1pm at the Gemini Bridges trailhead, to take a spin on Gold Bar / Golden Spike. We had a great time, everyone rode well, and besides a sore elbow, a great time was had by all.

Saturday morning, we woke up early to tackle the Porcupine Rim, Slickrock loop. It was a blast, and after a long day in the saddle (and some huge confidence building moments for Daddy True) the boys headed back to Boulder. Tiff and Brooks were planning on staying another day, but decided it just wasn't the same without the guys, and headed back home.

GREAT WEEKEND! Here are some pictures to tide you over. We'll probably post more soon too!

We'll have the Training with a side of more Training...

Training continues. Today Brooks, Tiff and Colin headed down 93 out of Boulder to ride the Belcher Hill Trail out of White Ranch. This long and steep 45 minute climb worked our legs as well as our lungs on trail that is more technical than what we expect to see at the race in Moab. After a fast descent we started to recall all the first rate teams we noticed that were signed up for AXS Moab...and we turned around and went up the hill again.

Getting ready to climb

Historically speaking, the Moab race in the Adventure Xstream series is largely a bike race. It kicks off with paddling, transitions to the bike for a long, steep climb to a rapel, transition to running and than back to the bikes to the finish line. The bike sections are known to include 40-50 minute climbs up steep fire roads and potentially some Moab singletrack.

With this in mind, long mountain bike climbs up steep fire road has been the name of the training game lately. This week found the metro-Denver/Boulder area dealing with two separate snow events that mucked up our trails in the foothills. So this past Saturday (3/8), Boyd and Colin found themselves heading north to Fort Collins, which was spared the white stuff, to try and find some good training ground. What they found upon riding at Horsetooth Mountain Park was a place that has been added to the short list of great places to train. With fun singletrack and a killer long fire road, Horsetooth had everything we were looking for including some great views of Longs Peak and the divide. The fire road is very close to the climbing that we'll (potentially) have to do in Moab so it's a fair bet to say that we'll be heading back to the Fort the next couple of weekends to get our climbing legs ready for the race. The trails were dry as promised, aside from a few snow patches, and the singletrack is technical enough to make it fun, but not enough to keep it from being a fast ride.

Sunday found Tiff and Brooks skiing in Telluride, Boyd riding at Vail and poor Mike in China on a business trip. Being the only one in the Front Range, Colin did a hill-intensive road ride including the "Wall" on McCaslin Blvd. No pictures, but Colin's quads are screaming right now!

First Race: AXS Moab!

We are registered for our first race, Adventure Xstream's 12 hours of Moab in early April. Training is in full swing and we're all getting pretty pumped to get out there and race. For this one, it looks like the team is going to be Brooks, Tiffanie, Boyd and Colin. Based on past experiences it should be bike intensive race which is also famous for it's 250' rapel.

Last weekend Boyd and Colin got out to do some training on the Mountain Bikes in the glorious sunny weather with temps in the 70's. We headed south of Golden and rode the trails on Green Mountain to get some good climbing in on the Mtn. bikes, but since then, we've had two snowstorms here in the Front Range so the team may be relegated to road riding this weekend if the trails don't dry out. Ahh, the pleasures of a Colorado Winter.

Updates should be coming more regularly now, so please check back to see what we've been up to as we prepare for a great 2008 racing season!

-Team GoLite

Training, it can be fun!

First of all, we are incredibly happy that Chris Boyd (formerly of team Timberland) has decided to join our team. We always have had fun racing and training with Boyd, and can't wait to race with him as part of the team. We have been training in earnest for the last month or so, and with Mike, Tiffanie, and Colin getting ready to go to Outdoor Retailer next week, the team is looking forward to a recovery week. Brooks will be pushing ahead for another week, before a recovery week the following week while he is in Orlando, FL for a conference on amusement park ride safety. We have been having a great time training as a team recently, so here are some pictures!

Our Rocky Mountain Elements have been ordered, and we can't wait to give them a whirl. We have been promised that they will be FAST, and we are excited to see what they can do. Thanks to Eph and Rocky Mountain for giving us this great opportunity! We would also really like to thank Jason Williams and the guys at Sports Garage here in Boulder for all of the help they have given us over the past couple of weeks. If you are ever in the area and are looking for the best bike shop around, head to Sports Garage.

Love The Ride!

We are proud to announce a partnership with Rocky Mountain Bicycles for 2008! RM makes some of the finest bikes in the industry, and we are all looking forward to getting a taste of our new RM Elements. Thanks to Rocky Mountain, we can't wait to rip on those babies!